Processing the Election with Fierce Love
We know that the midterm election on Tuesday, Nov. 8 can be overwhelming—as we watch the results come in, and pray that we will overcome rising fascism. (Have you made your plan to vote?) So we want to give you opportunities to process together as a community: What this election reveals about the U.S., how we can find healing in the midst of oppressive systems, and the how we can repair this nation’s festering wounds. Join us for a series of three fabulous conversations that will help you better understand what we all can do to win the world we deserve, and how we can find wholeness in that work. Throughout, we will hold space with fierce love, so you know that—whatever the results—you are not alone.
Sunday, November 6, 4:00 p.m. ET:
Vote Like a Mother
Feat. Ruby N. Sales, Nelba Márquez-Greene & Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis
Voting is not an individual act. When we vote, we’re making a decision that affects the lives of everyone around us. We need a public ethic that honors our interconnectedness, a fierce love that enters the polling place to vote for our neighbors’ self-interest. What if we voted like every child was ours? Because, in a fundamental way, they are.
Two days before the midterm elections, join an incredible panel discussion about how we can reshape our politics. Ruby N. Sales is a legendary civil rights activist who has spent her life advancing human rights and political liberation. Since working for SNCC in the 1960s, she has tirelessly organized for revolutionary change. She has founded several justice organizations, served on the steering committee for the International Women’s Day, and taught countless young folks how to do this work. V (formerly Eve Ensler) is a Tony and Obie award-winning, New York Times best-selling playwright, author, and activist with plays and books published in over 48 languages and performed in over 140 countries. She is also the founder of V-Day, the global grassroots movement to end violence against all women and girls (cisgender, transgender, those who hold fluid identities, and nonbinary people), and the planet. Nelba Márquez-Greene lost her daughter Ana Grace in the Sandy Hook shooting, and has since dedicated her life to advocating for the rights of children, removing guns from our communities, and creating community and connection for families. Her work on grief devotes a particular focus to caring for folks whose loved ones were killed by gun violence. Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis brings this work to the pulpit and national stage, where she has become one of the country’s foremost thinkers about antiracism and politics that uplift all people. Her most recent book Fierce Love provides a road map for the national and personal transformation we so desperately need. Rev. Amanda Hambrick Ashcraft is the founder of Raising Imagination, a platform that examines social issues through the lens of imagination and encourages activism with young and old alike. Her activism has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, Yahoo, the Wall Street Journal, and Refinery29.
Together, the three will describe what is at stake in this election, and how we can build coalitions that support mutual thriving.
Click here to register and receive Zoom information!
Monday, November 7, 2:00 p.m. ET:
We Reckon, We Heal: Recovering from Racist Trauma with Fierce Love
Feat. Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts & Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis
We live in a traumatic world. Every day, our news feeds show us suffering and death, and remind us that we exist in systems that are dehumanizing, degrading and deadly. For communities of color, this anguish is particularly acute. Nurturing personal healing and wholeness is an essential task, and yet we are forced to do that work while also enduring this country’s unrelenting racism and white supremacy. How can we recover in the middle of that mess?
Join a conversation between two of the country’s foremost thinkers about racism and recovery. Tracey Michae’l Lewis-Giggetts is the author of Then They Came for Mine: Healing from the Trauma of Racial Violence, which offers a blueprint for healing as Black and brown people reckon with the impact of trauma and feeling free to grieve in whatever way grief shows up. She’ll be joined by Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis, whose book Fierce Love outlines some of the ways she has approached this work in her own life, and gives people tools for engaging the world while also nourishing their own wholeness.
Click here to register and receive Zoom information!
Tuesday, November 8, 9:30 – 11:00 p.m. ET:
Election Night Gathering: Come be held by Clergy & Lay Leaders
Click here to register and receive Zoom information!
Tuesday, November 8, 9:45 p.m. ET:
Shelter in the Storm: Fierce Truth & Love as the Evening Unfolds
Feat. John Fugelsang & Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis
Join acclaimed radio host John Fugelsang and Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis as they react to the election results in real time. Even when we don’t know the full results, we can be reminded of fundamental truths: All humans are sacred. We are loved. And we are in this together.
John’s irreverent analysis blends the serious and comedic, always grounded in the fundamental love we owe one another. It’s an ethos that undergirds Jacqui’s public theology—deep mutuality and an understanding that we are inextricably interconnected. With so much at stake, come be reminded of what will free us and make us well.
Join the conversation live on Sirius XM channel 127.
Wednesday, November 9, 7:00 p.m. ET:
Repenting & Repairing with Fierce Love
Feat. Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg & Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis
Regardless of the midterm election outcome, we have hard work ahead. The U.S. still refuses to acknowledge its myriad systemic harms—from foundational evils like enslavement and indigenous genocide to the widespread racism, antisemitism, transphobia and other bigotries that currently afflict our politics. We need to truly grapple with what it means to repent from these sins, and chart a new future.
The night after the election, join two of the country’s foremost ethicists and religious scholars as they diagnose what’s inhibiting progress, and how we can change. Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg’s new book On Repentance and Repair is swiftly becoming a cornerstone text on this topic, and Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis’ acclaimed Fierce Love digs deep into how ubuntu and a politics of mutuality can usher in a more just future. Don’t miss the opportunity to hear them in conversation, offering words our nation—and each of us—need to hear.